Social Accountability Statement
The UGME program is committed to priority health concerns of the populations we serve: “We commit to serving and including the people and populations in our regions of Hamilton, Waterloo, Niagara, and surrounding communities in all work we do. We reflect systematically with an equity lens on our structures and actions to care, educate, study, innovate and lead in a manner that includes and best serves the marginalized and oppressed.”
The UGME program addresses its social accountability responsibilities through a system of distributed regional campuses and clinical education campuses. This distributed medical education model provides education and clinical experiences within the communities and regions we have a mandate to serve.
The UGME program fosters social accountability through leadership with Chair roles in Diversity and Indigenous Curriculum. The UGME program is committed to recruiting and retaining faculty and administrative leaders, instructors, tutors, facilitators and supervisors who represent marginalized, oppressed, and underserved groups.
The UGME program seeks to address health concerns of all who are marginalized and oppressed, with focused effort on priority groups. Priority groups are identified in a consultative process which considers demographics, healthcare experiences, and needs of groups within the UGME program’s catchment area, revisited biennially by the UGME program executive.
Currently, we identify two groups of priority:
(1) those who identify as Indigenous including First Nations, Métis and Inuit
(2) those who identify with Black ancestry
Expandable List
The UGME program takes a pro-active and longitudinal facilitated approach to supporting priority student populations within the program. This approach recognizes that students from priority groups have unique journeys including facing many barriers and inequities which can slow or impede success. The approach is collaborative involving student affairs, supports (eg. Indigenous Health Learning Lodge, McMaster Black Students Association) and dedicated resources (eg. Indigenous Bursary) focused on each priority group.
Curricular mapping processes are reviewed on a biennial basis by the Curriculum committee and presented at the UGME Executive Committee to identify how priority group health needs are addressed by the curriculum across each relevant component.
The type and location of experiences within the program reflect our social accountability statement, and are reviewed on a biennial basis by the Curriculum committee and presented at the UGME Executive Committee.